Members of Hold the Line Mullingar are holding an event on the Castlepollard Road this afternoon.

'What we’re doing today is sharing the truth'

Published: Sat 18 Jun 2022, 4:12 PM

Last updated: Sun 19 Jun 2022, 9:19 PM

The tagline of the campaign is ‘share the truth’, and that’s what we’re doing today – just sharing the truth.

With those words, Jen Masterston of Hold the Line Mullingar explained the protest being held this afternoon on the Castlepollard Road.

“We’re here today to try to reach people, to tell them we’re here, we see you, to tell them it’s ok to start making a bit of noise. We’re all in it together, we’re all trying to share information, and that’s it really,” said Jen.

Explaining the origins of the movement locally, she said it started with parents at the playground in Collinstown who weren’t wearing masks when other people were.

“It was early in Covid, and it was four parents standing around with no masks on, and looking at the others with masks, and we said ‘why are we different, why are we not following the rules?’ So we got chatting and realised that we all thought there was something shady going on, and it went from there.

“We built our group from four people to about 50, and we’ve had speakers down, from January till now – we’ve had Dr Gerry Waters, Ben Gilroy, Dr Vincent Carroll, Dr Stephen Manning, Eddie Hobbs.”

The group hosted those speakers at meetings in Collinstown Hall. “These people came and spoke to us, about Covid, the laws, the freedoms that we lost during Covid, the legality of it, with the governments and how they can push line sometimes,” said Jen.

“We just got information, and information is key. If you have information, you’re winning really.

“Then, we noticed lately that the only people we’re talking to are people like ourselves, who think like ourselves, that have the same mindset – so we thought ‘how do we get to other people?’, because there are people who have been damaged by vaccines, people that have lost loved ones after taking the vaccine, and there are people who believe the untruths that we’re being told.

“I contacted Fiona (Fiona Foley Bradley), who’s based in Nenagh and she originally started Hold the Line in Nenagh, with a few of her friends, standing out like this, with signs, who felt strongly that people were not being told the truth, so the tagline of the campaign is ‘share the truth’, and that’s what we’re doing today – just sharing the truth.

“We’re here today to try to reach people, to tell them we’re here, we see you, to tell them it’s ok to start making a bit of noise.

“We’re all in it together, we’re all trying to share information, and that’s it really.”

If you would like to find out more about Hold the Line Mullingar, the group’s email address is collinstownsaysno@gmail.com.